This invention relates to systems for storing data, and in particular to storage systems in which data is distributed among large numbers of hard disk drives or other storage media.
In a typical data storage network, data from many different applications is stored and retrieved, and it is difficult to track the relationships among all of the data stored. For example, in an e-mail system, an e-mail server generates original data and provides it to a storage system. An archive server may archive some parts of the data to different parts of the storage system or to different storage systems. At the same time a replication server may replicate the original data to different storage, and the data may be backed up by a backup server to yet further storage. While each of these data handling processes operate on the data associated with that process in an appropriate manner, the archive server, the replication server and the backup server each operate independently. Each has its own catalog or other mechanism for managing how the data is stored and retrieved. Because of the distributed nature of the system and the lack of consolidated catalogs, a user of a storage system typically cannot understand where data is situated in that storage system on a reliable basis.
Furthermore, the complexity of storage systems increases the probability of mistakes. In the example just described, some parts of the original data are not stored in the original storage, but instead have been stored in the archive storage. As a result, a replication of the original data will not contain the archive data. Thus the backup data will also not contain the archive data. Therefore, when a user restores data from the backup, because the backup data is not a complete backup of the original data, not all of the original data will be restored. All of this complexity makes managing the data in a coherent manner difficult and error-prone.
There are a few tools that help manage data in storage systems. These tools, however, do not address the issues mentioned above. One commercially available tool for use in management of a data storage system is provided by Veritas (™) and referred to as SANPoint Control. This system enables keeping track of the hardware devices and their relationships in a storage area network. Another commercially available tool is provided by AppIQ and known as storage authority suite. This system provides information about the hardware in the storage system, including hosts, bus adapters, switches, disk subsystems, etc. It also provides capabilities for management of particular applications running on the storage system, for example, Oracle databases, file servers, etc.
Another commercially available tool for use in storage systems is the Aptare Storage Console. This application software provides increased reliability for backup and restore operations in a storage system. The Storage Resource Broker from Nirvana is software that enables users of systems to share and manage filed stored in various locations. It provides various searching and presentation functions to enable users to find particular files or information stored in various portions of large data storage units.
Therefore, a system is needed which enables a user of the system to have a complete view of the data handling processes and the relationships among processes for management of the data to reduce the chance of error and improve the efficiency with which the data is managed.